What we believe changes how we live. If we believe we are Superman, we have no problem leaping from the 10th story window of a building or standing on a train track ready to stop an oncoming train. If we believe we are superior we ignore the rules that normal people have to obey and jump right to the front of the checkout line, or park in the illegal parking and “just pop in” and get something. Or we believe the lies told to us by a family member that we will never amount to anything, so we never risk trying to amount to something.
The company we keep changes our behavior. That is because peer pressure works its magic. If we hang around with positive people, we become more positive. But the opposite is true as well. Unless you are that rare person who is truly a leader, willing to step up and lead a group in a different direction, we all fall in with the crowd. So be careful of the company you keep.
Our belief in the character of Jesus, that He is righteous, will change our behavior. But what is righteousness and what does it look like today? We could start by looking at the Ten Commandments. They give us a good starting point. And if everyone in the world believed and lived by them, this would be a much different world. Our families would be much different since children would honor their parents. Our political life would be honest and filled with self-sacrifice. Our economic policies would not favor one class of people over another. We would honor each other’s stuff and not try to gain more than we need.
Jesus always did and does the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right attitude. We never have to question His motives. He is always doing what brings God glory and what is best for us from an eternal perspective. And if we know this, we act differently.
But John tells us that people who do what is right have His life in them. John is talking specifically in reference to those people who were teaching a false idea about who Jesus was. They taught that Jesus was not fully God and fully man, and as a result, they taught that all manner of sin was acceptable. What we do in this world doesn’t matter, they taught. All that matters is our spiritual side.
That is why John could say that people who do the right thing must believe the right thing. These false teachers believed something false and their lives reflected it. They didn’t live a righteous life.
What kind of life are you leading? What does it say about your beliefs?
The Arnold Journey 